A good read that kept my attention and was smart enough to keep me guessing. Kudos to the author for a well written mystery.

A book centered in Russia with a man named Vasin being sent to be a commandant of a stalag in Sebira. He does not know why he is there and wants his old job back. Meanwhile, a prisoner there has papers as to why President Kennedy was assassinated nobody wants that man to escape but they also want the papers. This turns out to be a good mystery suspense book with good characters. A good read.

White Fox by Owen Matthews is a superb read with a superb plot and characters Well worth the time and recommended!

Published by Doubleday on March 7, 2023

Writers regularly turn out novels that offer a fictional explanation for Kennedy’s assassination. White Fox is the latest. It is the third in a series of books that feature Alexander Vasin as the central character. The novels follow an arc but each tells a self-contained story.

Vasin was a homicide investigator who became a KGB agent. Because he burned some bridges to uncover a spy in the last novel, General Orlov, his boss in the KGB’s Special Cases Department, placed Vasin in charge of a penal colony in the far North of Russia. The prison is very cold and the prisoners, particularly a gang of Serbs, are ruthless. Vasin knows that he is being punished. The punishment is unfair, but Vasin does not expect fairness in the Soviet Union.

Orlov sends Vasin a “special prisoner.” The prisoner is to be kept alive at all costs. The two men escorting him are to be eliminated. The prisoner’s file identifies him as Lazar Berezovsky, but that isn’t his real name. Berezovsky’s life is in danger because he knows about KGB involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Berezovsky has stashed a file with documents that identify the KGB officers who participated in the conspiracy. Orlov wants that file to gain power over his enemies, including a major in a different department of the KGB who wants Berezovsky to die so that his knowledge will be buried.

Vasin uses his wits rather than his fists to survive, but the story becomes an action novel after a riot sends Vasin fleeing from the prison, keeping Berezovsky and a couple of loyal prison guards at his side. Vasin wants to deliver Berezovsky to Brezhnev (the anticipated successor to Khrushchev) so the government will learn about the KGB’s world-changing shenanigans.

Vasin hopes to intercept a train carrying reinforcements to the prison, but the tracks are buried in deep snow and they must stay alive through unsheltered Arctic nights. They must also avoid the Serbian prisoners who are tracking them. Vasin does not know that two of the KGB major’s men are on the train with orders to kill Berezovsky.

Berezovksy, on the other hand, hopes to escape to a country where nobody wants to kill him. With KGB training, Berezovsky has skills that make it difficult for Vasin to hold him captive. The story involves multiple chases that unfold in realistic detail, sometimes with the help of Roma kids who are organized into a criminal gang.

White Fox creates waves of danger and suspense without relying on James Bond stunts or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s wrestling moves. Vasin is noteworthy because he’s a smart and principled character, albeit one who needs flexible principles to stay alive. His plans to find Berezovsky and his hidden documents are clever, but sometimes Berezovsky is more clever. The chess match that ensues makes White Fox more interesting than a typical tough guy thriller.

The ending is a surprise. I’m not sure whether it leaves room for another chapter in Vasin’s story, but I hope Owen Matthews writes another one.

RECOMMENDED

At a penal colony in Siberia, Colonel Vasin, the commandant, receives a mysterious prisoner. Orders from Vasin’s superior, General Orlov, instruct him to kill the prisoner’s escorts and keep him safe at all costs. The prisoner, Berezovsky, is former KGB and has hidden documents that reveal Russia’s involvement in the Kennedy assassination. While Orlov wants him safe, there are others who are hunting him to obtain the documents and silence him. A prisoner uprising at the camp has Vasin, Berezovsky and several camp guards fleeing for their lives across the frozen tundra. They are rescued by a supply train, but Berezovsky escapes custody when they reach their destination. Vasin knows that his life depends on finding him. From Siberia to Leningrad, Vasin must think one step ahead of Berezovsky to find him. Berezovsky, however, is also a trained agent and he is determined to get out of Russia alive.

Vasin’s connections in Leningrad give him an advantage. Making a connection with the criminal element, he is able to put together a unique surveillance group composed of children, who can move around without calling attention to themselves. Each of Vasin’s maneuvers bring him closer to Berezovsky, but the hunters are never far behind. Owen Matthews’ chase through frozen Siberia takes your breath away. He also takes you through Catherine’s Palace as it undergoes restoration. His finale comes with a surprising twist that made this an excellent reading experience. I would like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday Books for allowing my review.

Vasin has been exiled from his KGB job to be commandant of a gulag in the frozen tundra for reasons not explained here but which are more or less irrelevant to this tale of betrayal, survival, and international affairs. Readers of the series (and I'm a fan) know that Vasim is a man who is conflicted but who will obey orders, which his superior Lt Gen Orlov also knows, which is why he sends an important prisoner-Berezovsky- to the gulag with instructions that Vasin kill the two escorts and protect the prisoner at all costs. Unfortunately, no one counted on the Chechens who arrived at the same time and who create a bloody uprising that forces Vasim to flee across the tundra with Berezovsky in tow because Berezovsky has hidden papers- papers implicating the USSR in the Kennedy assassination- somewhere and the powers that be want him and them. But then against all odds, once they make it to town, Berezovksy manages to escape setting off a fascinating chase involving a unique surveillance team assembled by Vasin. This is a violent, complicated tale that takes the reader on an atmospheric (you'll feel the cold and smell the dreadful smells) chase. The characters are good and the storytelling demands that the reader pay attention to track the twists. Don't miss the afterword. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great read.

An atmospheric, action-packed spy thriller set in the frozen tundra of late 1963 Russia. This was interesting and was a unique take on what really happened.

A satisfying ending to the Vasin trilogy. Mr. Matthews created a character that was extremely fascinating and mixed-up in many of the major calamitous (and nearly world-ending) events of the Cold War. This one was a slow burn all the way through, I was hoping for some sort of propulsive event that would hurl me through to the end of the book and while the ending was wonderful, it felt like it took a long time to get there.

After reading these three books in this series, I consider Mr. Matthews to be a must read author and I look forward to seeing and reading whatever the future holds for him.

White Fox by Owen Matthews
I found this to be a good read, not a great read but certainly worth your time if you enjoy espionage fiction that focuses more on a chase of someone with secrets. This chase mostly takes place by highly intelligent, intelligence officers in the KGB and little “bang-bang” and no “kiss-kiss.”Mr. Matthews is an international journalist with experience in Eastern Europe and Russia. In fact, he has family that live in Russia. He writes clearly given his journalistic background. In this story, he spins a believable story that some part of the Russian Government was responsible for Lee Oswald and the assassination. The “Fox” also a member of the KGB has information incriminating senior members of the Soviet Government who are trying to capture him and destroy him and the evidence. His only friend is a straight arrow in the KGB and has been banished to Siberia as a prison commandant. Here he meets the Fox and sometimes cooperating and sometimes not using trains move from Siberia to Tallin. I think what makes this book excel as a read is I could not predict how it ends. Ah! I shall not tell you.

This book came as something of a surprise to me. The Russian setting is something I know nothing about and frankly have little interest in, and the book lacked the nuances of character development that I generally prefer in my mystery-thrillers... and yet I really enjoyed it.

That was because there is some seriously good writing here, and the narrative line made for downright propulsive reading in spite of my lack of interest in the subject matter, Recommended.